First it was flat-panel TVs, now it’s security robots. South Korea continues to give Japan a run for its high-tech money as SK Telecom introduces the nation’s first mechanized sentry. The as-yet-unnamed “security pet” will compete for market share with Sanyo’s dragon-like Banryu and Mitsubishi’s Wakamaru, both of which retail for upward of ten times the SK Telecom version’s $850 price tag. Like its more expensive brethren, the Korean ‘bot can sniff out fires or lethal gases, snap photos of burglars, and send an intruder alert to a homeowner’s cell phone. Slap a Taser on there and maybe it’ll sell in the U.S., too.
